Photo submitted St. Agnes Episcopal Church is currently located on North St. Marys Street, where it was re-erected in 1905 after being moved from its former location in Ridgway.

By Becky Polaski

Staff Writer

Attendees at the St. Agnes Festival held Saturday afternoon had the opportunity to hear about the unique history of St. Agnes Church. The church is not only one of the oldest in Elk County, but also has the distinction of having served two different congregations in two different communities in two different centuries. 

According to Bill Conrad, who gave tours of the church on Saturday and filled residents in on its unique history, the history of the church is deeply connected in the history of the county.

Conrad explained that in the early days of Elk County the first denominational group to begin meeting regularly was a group of Methodists in Ridgway.

“This was 10 years before St. Marys was even founded,” Conrad said. “I don’t know what they were doing as far as spirituality was concerned in places like Kersey that are even older than Ridgway and St. Marys. My guess is they probably did what was happening early on in Ridgway. I think in 1833 in Ridgway there was a group of Methodists that started to meet and they probably met in maybe a home or commercial building. They didn’t build a church until much later on.”

Just over 30 years later, in 1866, a group of Episcopalians in Ridgway decided to construct a church, which was named Grace Episcopal Church. One of their early leaders was a lumberman by the name of J. S. Hyde who came to Ridgway in the 1840s and began to build property and buy sawmills. Conrad explained that Hyde also became involved in the effort to build the Episcopal Church.

In addition to being tied to the events taking place in Ridgway during this time period, the history of St. Agnes Church is also tied heavily to the events taking place at the same time in St. Marys.

“In about 1860 James K. P. Hall came to the area from Bellefonte. He was a lawyer and practiced in Ridgway for a very short time with his brother and then he comes to St. Marys and opens a law firm,” Conrad said. “He was one of the people who organized the St. Marys National Bank, which is today what we consider National City Bank.”

Hall then entered into a partnership with Andrew Kaul in the form of the Hall and Kaul Lumber Company, which later expands to include other business ventures.

Conrad explained that at the turn of the century the lumber and mining businesses in the county were beginning to decline, so Kaul decided to start Speer Carbon Company, which was the first big carbon company in Elk County.

“He had a partner by the name of Jack Speer, who knew how to make carbon. Jack Speer met a guy by the name of Harry Stackpole who was living in Ridgway. His family had a laundry and they sold the laundry after his brothers died. He went to work for Hall and Kaul at the bank. He was the Chief Cashier at the bank and he became a good friend of Jack Speer,” Conrad said.

Speer and Stackpole begin to frequently hunt and fish together and Speer eventually convinced Stackpole to start a company that made dry cell batteries. Speer noted that Speer Carbon Company made most of the raw materials for the batteries and if Stackpole created a company to make the batteries, it could result in a profitable business venture for both.

Stackpole, who had married Sally Hall, the daughter of James K. P. Hall, went to see his father-in-law and secured the backing necessary to start Stackpole Carbon Company.

“When they start Stackpole Carbon Company, he decides he needs to live in St. Marys because it is where his company is. So he and his wife moved to St. Marys,” Conrad explained.

At this same time, a new Episcopal Church is being constructed in Ridgway and Sally’s mother, Kate Hall, decided that her daughter needed to have an Episcopal Church in St. Marys.

“So she convinces J.K.P. Hall when they build the new church to take the old church apart, load it on a railroad car, move it up to St. Marys, and reconstruct it,” Conrad said.

According to Conrad, the church was re-erected in St. Marys and dedicated in 1905. It was also renamed St. Agnes Episcopal Church.